Sir Philip Green faces sanctions if he refuses to attend a Commons inquiry into the BHS collapse.
Photograph: Andy Hall for the Observer

MPs are preparing to invoke a list of sanctions against Sir Philip Green should the billionaire retailer fail to appear before this week’s parliamentary select committee examining the collapse of BHS.

The move, which could include the Topshop tycoon being found in contempt of parliament or facing a Commons vote on whether he is a “fit and proper” person to be running a business, comes after Green said on Friday that he was not prepared to participate in the inquiry.

Green wrote to Field: “I am not prepared to participate in a process which has not even the pretence of fairness and objectivity and which has as its primary objective the destruction of my reputation. I therefore require you to resign immediately from this inquiry.”

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Field had previously told the Financial Times that he “would laugh” if Green offered less than £600m to settle BHS’s pension debts. Over the weekend he told the BBC it was for the House of Commons to decide “who chairs these committees, not Sir Philip Green”.

BHS slumped into administration just a year after Green sold it for £1 to a consortium led by Dominic Chappell, who had previously been declared bankrupt and whose claims of previous business successes quickly evaporated. The collapse puts about 11,000 jobs at risk and leaves the company’s pension scheme with a £571m deficit.

The sudden failure of the business, as well as questions over Chappell’s credentials, have led to calls for Green to be stripped of his knighthood.

The shadow chancellor, John McDonnell, added to those calls in an article written for the Observer, in which he wrote: “The fact [Green] feels he can threaten to subvert parliament is an insult to the British public. If he refuses to come before parliament, Green should be stripped of his knighthood.”

On Sunday, Tim Farron became the first head of a major political party to press for the honour to be rescinded.

The Liberal Democrat leader said: “Philip Green should be stripped of his knighthood. There should be no debate about it. Every day he keeps his gong it shames the honours system and dishonours the thousands of staff now having to look for work.”